Review: L. Onerva, Mirdja: A Decadent New Woman, trans. by Eva Buchwald (Modern Humanities Research Association, 2025)

Abstract

In 2025 the English translation was published of L. Onerva’s Mirdja, a major Finnish decadent novel, which first appeared in 1908. The critical edition comprises the elegant prose translation by Eva Buchwald and an excellent, in-depth Introduction by Viola Parente-Čapková, who has also written the commentary accompanying the text. The volume also contains a selection of contemporary reviews of the novel. This is the first translation of Mirdja into one of the major languages.